Saturday, 27 June 2015

A Labour back bench
MP is bringing a new 'assisted dying' bill before the House of Commons.

Wolverhampton South
West’s Rob Marris (pictured) drew first place in the private members’ ballot
last month and says he will pursue a bill broadly in line with Lord Falconer's
proposals.

Lord Falconer’s
Assisted Dying Bill, which made provision for mentally competent adults with
six months or less to live to be prescribed lethal drugs, ran out of
parliamentary time before the election on 5 May.

Falconer subsequently
sought to introduce it in the new parliament but drew only 21st place
in the Lords ballot, leading to the bill’s supporters to approach Marris.

Marris’s Assisted Dying (No. 2)
Bill received its first reading in the House of Commons this week, and debate
on the principle of the Bill (second reading) takes place on 11 September.

It is usual to
publish a parliamentary bill on or soon after the first reading but Marris has
curiously chosen not to do this.

Some have speculated
that this is a tactic aimed at keeping those opposed to the bill guessing as to
its contents in order to give less time to mount specific criticisms ahead of
the second reading debate.

The long title of the
Bill reads as follows: ‘A Bill to enable competent adults who are
terminally ill to choose to be provided with medically
supervised assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes.’

So the crucial
elements are the same as Falconer’s Bill: mental competency, terminal illness,
medical supervision and self-administration.

But there is little
detail on the proposed mechanism.

However, Dignity in Dying (DID - formerly the
Voluntary Euthanasia Society) have
published on their website this weekend, a specimen letter for
supporters to send to their MPs which gives much more detail as to the bill’s
provisions.

They describe it as
follows:

‘Under this Bill, if a terminally ill patient
wishes to end their life two doctors and a High Court judge must be satisfied
that all the safeguards have been met. Both doctors must separately and
independently examine the patient and their medical records, confirming that
they are terminally ill, have mental capacity, are informed about their
end-of-life care options and that they have the ability to make a voluntary and
informed decision without pressure. All of this is then verified and checked by
the judge.’

In other words Marris’s bill is almost identical to
Falconer’s new bill. And as DID have actually drafted Marris’s bill and are
pulling all the strings (Marris is merely the marionette), we can be fairly
confident that this is an accurate description.

DID also reveal in the letter what they believe to
be their four strongest arguments in support of the bill, essentially as follows:

1. Most people want assisted suicide for the
terminally ill to be legalised (the democratic argument)

2. If we don’t legalise it in the UK people will go
abroad to Dignitas, try to kill themselves here in an amateurish way, or turn
to backstreet euthanasiasts.

3. The current law is not working

4. It’s better to help people who want to kill
themselves to do so with ‘upfront safeguards’ here

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Mumsnet is one of
the UK's largest websites for parents, offering brands the chance to influence
women via high-profile sponsored discussions and other forms of interaction.

Mumsnet is currently raising money for charity. In its second
annual Giving
Week in partnership with JustGiving, it is ‘shining a light on five
brilliant causes close to Mumsnetters' hearts’.

It promises to ‘matchfund’ any donations up to a total of
£25,000.

One of these five charities is the Abortion Support Network(ASN) which the Mumsnet website describes as a ‘tiny charity helping women in
Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man access safe abortions’.

Mumsnet goes on to say that ASN aims to provide ‘practical
information on arranging the least expensive abortion and travel, give grants
to cover the £400-£2000 it costs to travel to England and pay for a
termination, and provide accommodation in volunteer homes’.

What they don’t say on their website– but which is revealed
on their justgiving
page – is that ASN also provides information about ‘how to order
illegal but safe early abortion pills by post’ (see justgiving page below - click to enlarge - and
enlargement above).

Well at least it said that this morning when I looked (when
there were 63 donations on the site).

By this evening (85 donations recorded) the words in question had been
removed (see below - click to enlarge).

I then looked to see if they were on the ASN site (they
weren’t) .

Now this raises some interesting questions. The original
Mumsnet quote has all the appearances of being supplied by ASN. But clearly
something happened today to make them decide to take it down. I wonder what that was.

Contrary to popular opinion abortion is still a criminal
offence in Britain. All the Abortion Act 1967 did was to make abortion ‘lawful’
under certain limited circumstances. Two doctors must certify in good faith on
a statutory form that one of these circumstances applies in a given case.

Any abortion which falls outside these parameters – such as the
supply of abortion pills on the internet without two doctors’ signatures or an abortion not performed in licensed premises – is a
criminal offence carrying a custodial sentence.

Under Section 58 of
the Offences Against the Person Act (the language is archaic but the meaning
clear) it is illegal for a someone to abort themselves or another person.
Furthermore it carries a life sentence :

Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to
procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison
or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means
whatsoever with the like intent, and whosoever, with intent to procure the
miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, shall unlawfully
administer to her or cause to be taken by her any poison or other noxious
thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with
the like intent, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall
be liable to be kept in penal servitude for life

Whosoever shall unlawfully supply or procure any poison
or other noxious thing, or any instrument or thing whatsoever, knowing that the
same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure the
miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be
kept in penal servitude

So women who procure illegal abortions, and suppliers who
provide them with the means to do so, are both committing a criminal act punishable by imprisonment.

Now unlike the Abortion Act which does not apply in Northern
Ireland, the Offences Against the Person Act applies in all parts of the United
Kingdom.

So Mumsnet has been raising money for, and promoting, a
‘charity’ which it clearly believes supplies information about how to obtain illegal
abortions.

Mumsnet is clearly aware of this as it has put the
information on its own justgiving page.

Now let me spell this out a bit more clearly.

Abortions carried out outside the bounds of the Abortion Act
are criminal acts according to the Offences against the Person Act (section 58
and 59) and for both the woman and the supplier carry a custodial sentence.

If ASN is indeed giving advice about supplying illegal
abortion drugs by post, as the Mumsnet just giving page reports, then the
police must uphold the law by fully investigating and reporting their findings
to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Charity Commission should also carry out a full enquiry
into ASN’s activity including to what degree its sponsoring organisations BPAS,
Marie Stopes and the Pregnancy Advisory Service (the first two are also UK charities) are
involved. Did they know about this and are they collaborating? (BPAS and Marie Stopes are both listed as creditors in ASN's 2013 accounts so a business relationship exists)

By actively promoting and supporting this activity Mumsnet
itself is also potentially colluding in criminal activity. This is a serious
matter for the police, the charity commission and the crown prosecution
service.

Some questions the police and Charity Commission need to ask
Mumsnet and ASN are as follows:

1. Does ASN (a registered charity) supply information on how
to order illegal but safe early abortion pills by post?

2. If so were its sponsoring organisations BPAS, Marie
Stopes and the Pregnancy Advisory Service aware of this and involved? If so how?

3. If not why did Mumsnet place this information about ASN
on their justgiving page? Was Mumsnet misrepresenting ASN or just being
careless in revealing facts which ASN (and possibly also BPAS and Marie Stopes) wished to keep secret?

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Kiwi, Christian and Medical

This blog deals mainly with matters at the interface of Christianity and Medicine. But I do also diverge into other subjects - especially New Zealand, rugby, economics, developing world, politics and topics of general Christian and/or medical interest. The opinions expressed here are mine and may not necessarily reflect the views of my employer or anyone else associated with me.

About Me

I am CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organisation with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members. The opinions expressed here however are mine, and may not necessarily reflect the views of CMF or anyone else associated with me.